EAST LYME, Conn. (AP) — Six National Guard soldiers were sent to the hospital for observation after experiencing heat-related issued during a training march in Connecticut.
Major Dave Pytlik with the Connecticut National Guard said the soldiers were among several dozen participating this week in officer training school at the Guard’s Stone’s Ranch Military Reservation in East Lyme.
Monday is what is known as “rough march” day, where the soldiers carry heavy backpacks on rigorous training march, he said.
Pytlik said medical personnel, including a doctor, were on hand as part of precautions for the early morning march and responded appropriately to treat those suffering dehydration and other heat-related symptoms.
“The issue is that someone came on the network and used the term, ‘mass-casualty incident,’ and said someone was unresponsive” he said. “There was nobody who was unresponsive and mass-casualty kind of means something different in the world than it means to us.”
He said the six soldiers were taken to Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London for observation, but nobody was seriously injured.
The military training school typically trains between 60 and 100 candidates from National Guard units across the Northeast.
“These are all soldiers who are vying for the opportunity to become commissioned officers,” he said.
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